


Flipped Sides

by ZootyCutie



Category: Mixels (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 09:27:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12528224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZootyCutie/pseuds/ZootyCutie
Summary: A very important Mixel and Nixel find themselves in a world where everything is different from what they know, and find allies in the place they'd least expect.





	1. The Funneled World

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a little AU idea I had for Mixels that I wanted to develop into a story. Mixels is owned by Cartoon Network and LEGO, but I own the concept of Prince Nixel, Queen Nixel, Frau Nixel, Dr. Nixelputz, and the alternate world concepts. Enjoy!

“You’re too late to stop this, Mixels!”

The skies in Mixopolis churned with a dark electric haze, as the clouds spiraled in the center of the sky and the winds whipped debris around the cityscape. King Nixel, flocked by Major Nixel and a hoard of minion Nixels, faced up against the large group of Mixels, led by Flain. On the side of the Nixels was a large device that was collecting the electricity from a spire, with Dr. Nixelputz at the controls, adjusting the dials and controls.

“The machine is almost charged, Your Tallness!” The bad doctor yelled out from the noise.

“Excellent!” King Nixel cackled. “Why should I spend time Nixing these Mixels, when I could just ship them off to another dimension entirely?”

“We’re not going to let you get away with this!” Flain yelled out.

“We gotta get that machine out of commission!” Teslo called out towards Flain, the wind pushing him back.

“Me got it!” Krader triumphantly said, as he charged towards it, pushing other Mixels out of the way.

“Stop him, you idiots!” King Nixel screeched, as the hoard of Nixels ran towards him, chanting.

Undeterred, Krader still attempted to plow his way through the hoard of tiny monsters that were starting to swarm him.

“Krader!” Seismo and Shuff called out in fear for their leader and brother.

“Just…one…punch!” Krader angrily pushed out, lifting his fist to as much as he could with as much strength as he could muster.

This ended up connecting with the machine. Even though it didn’t shatter, it did leave a massive crack in the machine, sending out enough force to send the Nixels and Krader flying, while also causing Dr. Nixelputz to be launched off of the control panel, changing the controls and sending a large spire of electricity into the sky.

“No!” Dr. Nixelputz called out in shock, as the spiraling clouds funneled down into a small tornado-like tube. Both Nixel and Mixel grabbed onto anything they could to try and avoid getting sucked into the cloud, but in the end, it ended up growing two strong for one of each.

Flain was pulled from the ground, his fire extinguishing from the harsh winds. Meanwhile, King Nixel’s mech body practically tore itself apart, leaving only the small pincer-sided Nixel, minus his imposing robe, height, mustache, and crystal crown. Before anyone could act, the two of them were entirely sucked into the cloud. With a large crackle of electricity, the cloud exploded into nothing, as the winds automatically stopped, dropping anyone or any debris in its field, as the sky grew clear…with both Flain and King Nixel entirely gone.

“Flain!” Nearly every Mixel called out in shock.

“Sire!” Major Nixel called out.

Both sides could only hope that somehow, somewhere, the two of them were safe.

\---

In what felt like an eternity away, in another place, the familiar spiraled cloud formed again, this time, spitting out two figures a distance away from each other before dissipating again.

“Ugh…what happened?” Flain moaned, sitting up and viewing his surroundings. It was a barren location, very bleak and grey. “I…guess there’s really nothing else I can do but walk?”

With that, Flain stood up and started walking in the direction he was facing. Surely he would find civilization somewhere?

\---

Meanwhile, a mile away in the opposite direction, King Nixel also was starting to get his composition back. 

“Stupid rock-faced Mixel.” He angrily said, standing up. “Not a bad color scheme we got here, though. Anyone that can make this has to be as clever as me!”

He too started to walk in the direction he was facing. While it took him a while to get some bearings, he was able to easily find civilization…and what a civilization he found.

This place looked like Mixopolis when he attempted to Nix it (took him a while to recover from the wounds of being hit by a bug zapper during that incident). However, unlike Mixopolis, it somehow managed to be duller. Nearly every single building was a cold grey skyscraper or bunker-like house. The only vehicles in the streets were dark trucks that sputtered out cloudy smoke from their pipes. Much to the displeasure of King Nixel…it was filled with Mixels!

At least, they looked like Mixels? They were the same faded greys as his previous hoard of Mixel zombies, but they still had their pupils intact. Each Mixel was also wearing a dark grey jumpsuit with a nametag and a number written on them. They all walked in sync to their locations. None of them showed emotion. No one payed attention to each other. By all standards, they WERE zombies!

“I could get used to a place like this!” King Nixel grinned, as he walked off, unaware of the stares he was getting for walking in the different step key as everyone else…

\---

Meanwhile, Flain was still struggling in the barren wasteland that was he was lost in. It felt like he had been walking for hours and miles, and everything that could be considered a landmark looked like the previous one. Finally, Flain couldn’t take it, as his knees wobbled and he collapsed onto them, his vision going somewhat hazy, as he could see two figures, one blue, one orange, walking towards him, his eyes fully shutting as he heard two faded voices.

“Are they one of them?”

“I don’t think so, there’s no way one of them would manage to look like that.”

“So…what do we do?”

“I…guess we bring them to the base? I think there’s something important with them…”

After this, Flain felt himself fully slip out of consciousness…

\---

Flain slowly found himself waking within the half hour. The grey landscape that he originally found himself in was now a warm hospital-like environment. The walls were painted a bright white, with posters scattered on them that said things like “Yes!” and “Smile!”. However, the biggest one was a bright rainbow-colored one with a thumbs-up symbol that looked very familiar, but Flain couldn’t put his finger on how just yet.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.” A voice that sounded eerily familiar said. “Chill and Bounder told me you were a special case, and I certainly see that you are!”

Walking into the rooms was a small mint green-colored creature. He wore a thick pair of glasses that showed off warm eyes, and a crazy-patterned bowtie. But, that size…that voice…

No doubt about it, that was Dr. Nixelputz. But why did he seem like everything a Mixel should be and everything a Nixel wasn’t?


	2. Different Sides

“W-where am I? Who are you? How did I get here?”

As Flain stammered out whatever came to his mind, the doctor that may or may not be a Nixel was studying him.

“Well,” He started, adjusting his glasses. “I’m able to answer all three of those. You’re in our little underground area we call the Nexoground. I’m the chief medic and scientist of here, you can call me Dr. Nexchem. And for that final thing, I don’t know how you got to this world, but if you mean my office, you can thank Chill and Bounder for that.

As if on cue, two more of these Nixel-like characters walked into the room. One was bright blue with squared-off ears, the other orange with cat-like ears. Unlike the Nixels that Flain new, they seemed genuinely kind, with eyes softer, features rounder, and personalities kinder.

“We found you in desert.” The blue one, Chill, explained.

“You don’t look like any of those other Messils we’ve seen.” Bounder added.

“Messils?” Flain asked in confusion.

“That is what you are, isn’t it?” Dr. Nexchem asked.

“Never heard of them, I’m a Mixel.” Flain explained. “And I suppose you’re not Nixels, then?”

“Doesn’t sound like a fun term.” Chill said. “We’re Nexils.”

“…I’m really a long ways away from home, then.” Flain sighed.

\---

Meanwhile, King Nixel was giddily walking through the city, a malicious grin on his face. This was exactly how Nixopolis should have been! No fancy restaurants, no toys stores or parks, nothing creative or fun! Of course, his large grin was now giving away this little guy away even further from the citizens, some who were quietly whispering to each other. But he didn’t seem to notice anything. At least…not until he bumped into three figures.

They looked like the MCPD from that silly police station in his world. However, they too were greyed out and wore the same jumpsuits and tags as the other citizens, along with a dulled metal badge.

“Child citizen.” The one that looked like Kuffs said, the somewhat Southern drawl that the original had sounding flatter. “You’re in violation of rule number 37: it is the time where young citizens are in their learning rehabilitation centers.

“You are also in contempt of rule number 12.” The Tiketz-like one said. “You are out of your required uniform and serial number.”

“And also in contempt of rule number 233.” The Busto-like one added. “All citizens must follow the appropriate paths to their destinations and not linger.”

Suddenly, the Kuffs-like one grabbed the royal Nixel’s arm and tossed him into the Busto facsimile’s holding cell.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” King Nixel angrily protested, as the alternate Kuffs clicked onto a walkie talkie.

“This is Citizen Number 41554.” He said. “We have secured the rogue child citizen and are now taking him to the learning rehabilitation center. He appears to need extra attention.”

“No, let me go!” King Nixel begged. “HELP ME!!!”

\---

“Wow, those guys sound like major losers.”

Flain was guided to the dining area of this civilization, where he and the three other Nexils sat at a small table. It was a surprisingly well put together location, especially for an underground one. The houses were of different sizes, shapes, and colors, decorated to fit each Nexil citizen that lived there. It almost looked like Mixopolis…if Mixopolis was underground and much smaller.

“Yeah, we created this civilization to try and stay away from them.” Chill explained. “Someday we wish we could spread the idea of creativity and color to them, but anything as outlandish as a twinkle of color as dangerous.”

“I even once thought painting ourselves black and white would be a good idea to hide ourselves.” Bounder added, a slight laugh in his voice. “Everyone else thought it was crazy. And it was, I’ll admit, but who ever said crazy wasn’t a bad way of thinking? Crazy could work.”

“I like your style, little dude.” Flain said, as another Nexil walked in, wheeling a pot of stew with her. She was colored with a lavender shell, with a light pink chef toque and matching apron, with her apron having the same rainbow thumbs-up symbol as the poster. She had a familiar-looking beauty mark on her cheek as well.

“Here you go, darlings.” She said, as she ladeled out four bowls of stew and served them, giving Dr. Nexchem a quick peck on the lips before she left, wheeling the pot back with her.

“Should have thought she’d have a counterpart here, too.” Flain muttered to himself.

“Hm?” Chill said, hearing his muttering.

“N-nothing!” Flain said, shoving his spoon in his mouth.

“We’d probably need the help of the Queen for this.” Chill said, changing topics. “I think she’d know the best source of action on this.

“You have a Queen here instead?” Flain asked. “The Nixels have a king; at least, that’s what I know of.”

“Well, we did have a king.” Dr. Nexchem explained, somewhat down. “He passed away a while back, but he left us a prince for the next heir.”

“This…prince.” Flain said, something dawning on him. “Would, he happen to be somewhat shorter than the others, have no special ears, and…pincers on the side of his head?”

“…Yes, actually?” Dr. Nexchem said, in confused shock. “How would…you happen to know this?”

“Just a shot in the dark.” Flain fibbed, grinning about his newfound knowledge. This was gonna be good…

\---

Meanwhile, King Nixel, or rather, Prince Nixel, was forced into the student rehabilitation center. He was decontaminated and then suited up in one of the jumpsuits and tags, being sent into one of the classrooms. It was filled with child Messils, all looking like the kids from Mixopolis Middle School, including the pesky four that had defeated him in the past. He sat down in a desk next to one that looked like Camillot, he bore a tag that said “Number 41557”.

Before he could react, the lights shut off, as a bright film screen flickered on. Instead of a film, text was shown on the screen, along with a booming voice.

“STUDENT CITIZENS.” It said. “REPEAT AFTER ME. I AM A NUMBER.”

“I am a number.” The class repeated in monotone, though Prince Nixel didn’t say a thing.

“I AM A PART OF THIS MACHINE.”

“I am a part of this machine.”

“EVERY PART OF THIS MACHINE IS MEANT TO WORK THE SAME.”

“Every part of this machine is meant to work the same.”

“NO ONE WILL BE ABOVE ANYONE ELSE.”

“No one will be above everyone else.”

“WE STAY EQUAL.”

“We stay equal.”

It was at this point that everything dawned on Prince Nixel.

“…I need to find that fire Mixel.”


	3. The Rainbow Reveal

Following the three Nexils, Flain was lead through the looping corridors of the Nexoground. Throughout the city, there was so much that Nixel Land would never dare have. Nexils of every color of the rainbow talked with each other as best friends, rather than soldiers. They had a variety of small shops that catered to random needs, schools that taught a variety of subjects, and everything that Mixopolis had, albeit scaled down and much more primitive thanks to the location. While it did amaze Flain, it also made him only want to get back home sooner.

Eventually, the three Nexils stopped in their tracks, causing Flain to stop as well, nearly bumping into them. In front of them looked like a thick wall of forest green paint. Looking up revealed something that was…pretty similar to that same description. The big square LOOKED like Muscle Nixel, the giant Nixel experiment made to get some brute strength into the Nixel army. However, his shell was colored, like the other Nexils, as was his belt, which was brown instead of grey and sported the rainbow thumbs-up on its buckle that was scattered everywhere else.

“Stronghold, we need to get in.” Dr. Nexchem said, peering up towards the wall of armor.

“Sorry, I can’t do that.” Stronghold said, his voice just as booming as Muscle Nixel, but not as harsh and deep. “The Queen’s in an important meeting with the Major, and I was told I’m not supposed to let anyone in unless it’s an emergency.”

“It…kinda is.” Chill hesitated, as he and Bounder parted, revealing Flain, as Stronghold crouched down to get a better view of the Mixel.

“Um…” Flain started, slightly a loss for words. “…Hi?”

\---

“I’M SORRY THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!”

Before anyone could react, the doors of the Queen’s throne room was swung open as Stronghold shouted out a rushed apology and the three Nexils and Flain were shoved into the room. As the doors slammed shut, the fire-topped Mixel quickly looked around at what he interrupted. On the throne was a Nexil that looked like the elusive Queen Nixel that had only been hinted at as existing. Taller than even what Major Nixel would reach, her shell was a deep royal purple in color with a maroon and gold ermine cape draped around her, clasped with a square-shaped gemstone that shone in six familiar colors. She wore a golden crown and carried a golden scepter, also sporting the same six-colored gemstone. Her eyebrows were much thinner than standard, and she also wore matching maroon eye shadow and lipstick. She was eyeing Flain with intense curiosity.

Standing near the throne was the spitting image of Major Nixel…Major Nexil? Whatever his name was in this universe. The same height, pointed ears, thick white mustache and eyebrows, badge, and pauldrons were still there, though there were so many color differences that made him seem entirely different from the one Flain knew. His shell was a dark navy blue, while his badge and pauldrons were colored in a bright gold and red coloration, one that almost felt lingeringly familiar to Flain. And then there was that little guy…

Sitting in a smaller throne, much smaller than his mother’s, was the counterpart to that nasty King…er, Prince. His shell was bright golden and still held onto those two small pincers that he recognized the thought-to-be Nixel king had. Instead of the crystalline crown the king wore, he had a more detailed golden one that was placed somewhat lopsided on his head, looking a bit larger than it should be on him. He mimicked his mother’s curious expression.

“Y—you’re majesty!” Dr. Nexchem said, somewhat stammering. “I—I can assure you I have a good reason for interrupting this meeting!”

Ignoring what the doctor had to say, the queen simply rose from her throne and walked towards Flain, her cape trailing behind her. Flain attempted to keep a brave face, but his higher-burning fire was starting to give him away. The queen stopped at Flain, so tall that her eyesight ended where his prongs did. As she looked down at him and he looked up at her, she pulled her scepter further towards him.

“You’re the ones that use these, are you?” She asked, almost sounding desperate, rather than haughty like her appearance hinted at. She focused the gemstone of the scepter towards him, as he peered at it. Red…orange…yellow…blue…green…purple. All arranged in triangles. Arranged in a square. 

It looked exactly like a rainbow Cubit.

\---

“IT IS THREE P.M. IT IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD LITTLE CHILD UNIT MESSILS TO RETURN TO THEIR HOUSING UNITS. PATROLS WILL BE IN SEARCH OF ANY STRAYS.”

The tinny voice coming from the intercom sounded like it was recorded ages ago. As the doors of the school mechanically opened up, the students marched out in unison to their designated locations. Able to slip away from them by pretending it was the route he was meant to take, Prince Nixel hid in an alleyway, entirely shocked out of his mind.

“These things are insane!” He shuddered to himself, dropping to the ground, shuffling around. “Where’s a manhole cover when you need one?”

Finally, the feel of cold concrete turned into that of cold metal as he found his goal of what he needed. He knew if the sewers of Mixopolis led to Nixel Land, that the opposite should be true as well. Prying off the heavy metal disc as quickly as he could, he slid it partway open, sat down on the edge, and let himself drop. As expected, he landed on cold concrete rear-side down.

“Ow…” He moaned, struggling to stand up. He felt the cold and wet surroundings settle in as the chills hit. He then noticed a damp feeling on his arm. Lifting his jumpsuit sleeve up, he used the sliver of light coming from the upper cover to let him see what it is. Much to his horror, it was rainbow-colored.

“NOT THIS STUFF!” He screeched, ripping off his jumpsuit and letting it fall into the sewer water, where it was dyed from the rainbow liquid. He quickly ran after it, since that was the way the water flowed, avoiding every puddle of it on the way. That fire-shooter had to be where it ended…right?

\---

“You do know what it is!” The queen erupted in happiness, practically swinging Flain around in a gleeful hug.

“Your Majesty!” The parallel to Major Nixel said, somewhat aghast, as Flain attempted to gasp for air from being squeezed too tight.

“Oh!” She said, dropping Flain. “My apologies, where are my manners? I’m the queen of the Nexils…Queen Nexil, not the most creative, I know. I’m sure I could do better.”

Catching herself from rambling on, she pointed out the other two.

“This is my army’s general, Major Nexren. He’s been my biggest help in figuring out what these things exactly are. And this is my son, Prince Nexil.”

She then walked over to the throne, where a set of red velvet curtains bound by a thick braided gold rope stood. She grabbed onto the dangling one as her son climbed off of his throne to watch.

“And this…” She dramatically gestured, pulling the rope. “Is the biggest part of our entire goals!”

As the curtains opened, the things behind it were revealed. Along with a painted portrait of the queen, prince, and who appeared to be the late king was a large system of clear glass pipes, all flowing with a familiar rainbow liquid.

“We’ve been studying this for ages.” Dr. Nexchem said, directing his attention to Flain. “The Messils dispose of this stuff like it’s nothing, but I’m sure you know what it is?”

“That’s…Cubit essence?” Flain said, in awe, the memories of that certain event. “They take all of their Cubits, reversed their polarity, and made them practically useless…”

“Those Messils just throw away the base, too.” Major Nexren added. “They don’t have a use for the empty shells, so we sent out scouts to take some for our own study.”

“No Cubit sources…” Flain realized. “That means they don’t Mix at all!”

“And they’re the only ones that can.” Bounder added. “We’ve tried to re-reverse the polarity on these…Cubits, you said. Apparently they’re tailor-made for them and them only.”

“What a gift they’re throwing away.” Chill replied, as Flain nodded in sad agreement.

Before anyone could talk, a loud siren and flashing red lights went throughout the underground system, as the pipe flow slowed down to a halt.

“What is that thing?!” Flain loudly asked, holding his hands to where his ears should be.

“It could be anything!” Prince Nexil yelled, plugging the pincers near his head.

During the commotion, Major Nexren rushed over to an intercom system plugged into one of the cavern walls.

“What’s the source of this?” He asked as loudly as he could, plugging one of his ears.

“There’s a blockage in the pipes.” The voice on the other end responded. “We should be fixing it right…now.”

As soon as the voice finished, the sirens and lights died down, and the pipes started to flow again.

“Oh, and there’s an intruder in the Nexoground.” The voice added, as the sirens and lights started up again, causing more commotion.

“…Could’ve said that sooner.” Major Nexren snarked into the speaker.

Before anyone could react, the doors of the throne room once again swung open as Stronghold pushed his way through, carrying…something.

“I CAUGHT THE INTRUDER!” He happily yelled, though if he was yelling out of the noise or out of pure boisterousness was at debate.

As soon as he shouted this, it seemed like everything ground to a halt. The sirens shut off, the lights stopped flashing, the intercom clicked off, and everyone turned towards Stronghold. Clutched in his hand was the tiny Prince Nixel, who was being held by the top of his shell, his arms and legs flailing in futile anger attempting to get freed, while Flain attempted to stifle a laugh, though the sputtering snorts coming from him was giving him away very easily.

“LET! ME! GO!” The puny prince shouted, as Stronghold unceremoniously dropped him and he ran off…only to run smack dab into Flain, who had stepped in front of him for this exact reason, knocking him onto his back as the Infernite looked down at him.

“Hello, pipsqueak!” Flain grinned, as Prince Nixel scrambled to stand up.

“Fire Mixel!” He demanded. “You’re going to help me get out of this monstrosity of a place!”

“And why should I help you?” Flain asked, still grinning. “After all, you’re the reason we’re both here. Granted, I’ve had great hospitality thanks to these guys, I’m guessing your time here has been not so hot?”

“It’s fine!” the diminutive Nixel protested, though his stilted voice hinted at lies, as he continued rambling and demanding, even though Flain kept drowning him out.

Meanwhile, Prince Nexil was just staring in wide-eyed curiosity and shock. Could someone that was practically him be THIS mean? He noticed that Flain seemed to catch onto his shock, mainly due to the fact that he was the barrier between the two, along with being the specific reason the Nixel hadn’t noticed the Nexil automatically, though it could have been the ranting that was distracting him, too. Finally, Flain decided he had enough, and stepped aside, putting them in each other’s viewpoint.

“And furthermore--” Prince Nixel continued, only to stop when he saw the golden-shelled duplicate of him. “…You have got to be kidding me.”


	4. A Plan in Need

“OUTRAGEOUS! IMPOSSIBLE! TREACHERY!”

By this time, Prince Nixel was ranting in anger, pacing the floor of the throne room. How was this golden boy him? Not an ounce of evil, not a hint of mischief, heck, he didn’t even have the audacity to pose as his deceased father and take control of the army of mindless clones of his species? What kind of person doesn’t want to do that?

As Prince Nixel continued to rant in the background, Flain shifted his attention elsewhere. He had bigger matters to press onto. As much as he hated to admit it, the puny prince had a point. They DID need to find a way out of here.

“So, are there any gaps into our home anywhere we can just slip through and be done with?” Flain asked, expecting no simple answer.

“Unfortunately, no.” Dr. Nexchem sighed. “I’m assuming that the device my duller counterpart created took up a large amount of energy for the rift to be created, am I right?”

“That and a poorly-timed Cragster punch.” Flain explained. “Not sure what could cause that “oomph” like ours did, since we’ve already had a few major life changing events happen in our town, this one almost seemed like a tiny energy amount.”

As the room gave a collective sigh of defeat (save for Prince Nixel, who was still spouting out single words of how impossible his doppelganger’s ideas were), Flain relooked at everything. The Cubit-like gemstone topping the queen’s scepter. The now rainbow-stained jumpsuit that was fished out of the pipes and was dripping onto the throne room’s floor. The rainbow pipes themselves.

“Would…changing the lifestyle of an entire species be considered life changing enough?” Flain pondered, as the gears in his head started to turn. “As in…giving them the gifts they’ve been throwing away?”

“I HATE IT.” Prince Nixel chimed in, though at that point, it was impossible to tell if he was listening to the conversation or still rambling on about his dislike of the situation.

“Well, if HE hates it…” Prince Nexil decided, glaring at his gloomy counterpart. “Then I like the idea!”

“Sounds lofty.” Chill said. “Doc, could that work?”

“Well…” Dr. Nexchem pondered. “If it was done all at once, somehow conglomerating all of the mass of an entire population into one location, then there’s a possibility. The only thing is how that could possibly be done, is all.”

“We use Bounder’s idea.” Flain bluntly said.

“What?!” Chill and Bounder said in unison, Chill in shock, Bounder in amazement.

“Yeah, it’s convoluted, sure,” Flain admitted. “But it’s the only way that we could sneak around. I mean, they thought Princey-boy here was one of them. All we need are duplicates of the jumpsuit and quick color changes and we’re good. Is there a tailor around here or something?”

\---

“PATCH, WE GOT A PROJECT FOR YOU!”

“…Thanks for busting my eardrums, Bounder.”

“No problem, Chill!”

At the edge of the Nexoground was a small clothing store. Now, Nexils weren’t known for wearing many clothes, but all that did seemed to have all their needs taken care of by this small shop. It was modest, simple, and yet miles ahead of anything Nixels would have. Flain, Bounder, Chill, and a begrudging Prince Nixel knew this was the place to be for what they needed.

“I’m coming!” A feminine voice called from the back. Through a curtain, a clay-shelled Nexil walked out. She was square-eared and wore a Mountbatten pink bandana tied around her head as if she was tying back nonexistent hair. Around where her neck should be was a silver chain with a bright red heart locket on the end of it. Most strikingly was the fact she only had two fangs, missing the middle fang on her top. For some reason, this, combined with her voice, had some inkling of familiarity to Flain.

“It’s kind of an ‘emergency project’; I guess you could call it.” Bounder admitted, holding out the rainbow tie dyed jumpsuit to her. “We need recreations of this for the four of us…just not, rainbow.”

“They have to be as boring and bland and gray as possible!” Chill piped in, cringing at the lameness of the idea.

“And whatever the nametags are.” Flain added, trying to ignore the odd inkling he still had, along with the fact that Patch seemed to be sizing him up as some amazing spectacular, just because he wasn’t a Nexil.

“I think me and my assistant can get this done.” Patch said, still sizing up Flain, as she turned towards the back of the store. “Blitz, can you come over here?”

“Coming!” Another somewhat-familiar voice to Flain called from the back, as a bright yellow-shelled cat-eared Nexil came out from the back of the store from the same curtain, also somewhat taken aback by the sight of Flain momentarily.

“Blitz, do we have any…ahem, ‘boring’ materials that we could recreate these in?” Patch asked, showing him the chromatic clothing she was holding onto.

“I think we have some really old fabric we never used, maybe?” Blitz suggested. “It’s scratchy, it’s boring, and it’s probably the worst thing to wear.”

“That’s perfect!” Flain said. “The worse-looking, the better!”

“You guys are weird.” Blitz said. “I don’t get why you want boring when you can have cool like this thing!”

“It’s…kind of a hush-hush big secret.” Bounder admitted. “But it’s for a good reason, trust us!”

“Whatever you say…” Patch sighed, as she grabbed some tools and started to get to work.

\---

It took quite a few hours, to the point that it was worthless to even attempt to work out the plan that night. It would have to wait until morning. However, with proper stillness (a challenge on Bounder, who almost seemed like he was a wiggle worm over a Nexil), proper critiquing (something that was not Prince Nixel’s forte, as he seemed to keep hurling insults throughout it, but everyone learned to ignore him), and with the proper art skills (something that Patch and Blitz thankfully both had), four jumpsuits made out of the tackiest, dullest, and plainest gray fabric were completed. All four of them bore a dull nametag with a random serial number on them.

“So, what do you think?” Patch asked, still a touch confused by the work she had to create.

“They’re boring, they’re bland, and they’ll make us look like Messils.” Flain said, as Patch and Blitz looked down, disappointed in their work. “They’re perfect!”

“You really mean it?” Blitz asked, as his and Patch’s hopes immediately rose up.

“Totally, dude!” Flain happily said. “They’re just the thing for the big plan!”

“Seriously, what IS this plan?” Patch asked, now entirely lighthearted.

“Trust us, you’ll see!” Bounder said, a grin spreading across his face. “If tomorrow turns out like we want it to, everything will be amazing and right as rain!”

\---

“Once again, can’t thank you enough for this, little dudes.”

“I can, Mixel. I think these two deserve nothing.”

Since the attack couldn’t go on until tomorrow, along with Flain and Prince Nixel were without a place to stay for the night, Chill and Bounder let them crash in their apartment. While it was technically hardly big enough for the two of them to live in, let alone two extra guests, one of them bigger than the standard size of the species that lived in the city, it was still a free sleeping location.

“Once again, ignoring you.” Chill said, as he threw a pillow and blanket towards at the prince. Whether or not it was an accident that they both smacked into them or not was all up to opinion.

“So, you really think this’ll work?” Bounder asked, as he tucked himself into his bed. “I mean, I came up with the idea and I’m even starting to doubt it now…”

“I’m confident it will.” Flain said, tugging on the t-shirt that was lent to him to use as a pajama shirt. It was slightly short on him, even for an oversized one in Nexil terms. “It’s all about confidence, helps make it work. Little Glorp Corp kid back home was confident that superheroes existed and he ended up saving the town once.”

“Ruining my chance of destroying it.” Prince Nixel mumbled under his breath, though loud enough that everyone could hear the distaste in his voice.

“Anyways,” Flain continued, not bothering to pay the prince any mind. “It’ll be quite a feat to get through, so we’ll need enough energy for it.”

“Right.” Chill said, starting to warm up to the plan inch by inch. He pulled on the switch of the lamp that sat in the middle of the small bedroom, plunging the room into darkness. “Night, all.”

“Night.” Flain and Bounder’s voices echoed back, as they settled in to sleep. Flain could swear that he heard Prince Nixel attempting to jiggle the door to escape, even though it was preemptively locked and Flain was given the key for a “just in case” safe keeping. He must have eventually given up, because the noise gave up eventually, and grumpy deep breathing took its place.

This plan had to work. It really just had to.


End file.
